Please mark your calendar for Thursday night May 19, 2011, from 6:00 until 9:00 PM, and save this date to join with Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City in the celebration of our Silver Jubilee. Founded in 1986, the largest city-wide Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club is now in our 25th year. We will celebrate this milestone occasion with a cocktail reception at the landmark Woolworth Tower Kitchen at the base of the iconic skyscraper in Lower Manhattan.

Register for the Event!

25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee

Cocktail Reception

Thursday, May 19, 2011

6:00 P.M.- 9 P.M.

The Woolworth Kitchen Restaurant

233 Broadway (between Park Place and Barclay Streets), NYC

Online registration and sponsorhip will be available soon.

Stonewall to the Barricades Against Walmart

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

As the war over Walmart continues to rage in New York City, the Stonewall Democratic Club has voted to back the effort to keep the low-cost mega-retailer out of town.

In a resolution adopted following a January 26 presentation by Stuart Appelbaum, the out gay president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the gay political group noted that the chain receives only a 40 percent grade from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, compared to perfect 100 percent scores for other big retailers such as Macy’s and Costco.

HRC credits Walmart, the number two ranked company in the Fortune 1000, with a sexual orientation nondiscrimination policy, but none covering gender identity and expression. Same-sex partner benefits are limited to bereavement, relocation, and employee assistance programs, and there only where required by law, the Index shows.

No transgender-related health benefits are provided, and mandatory diversity training includes sexual orientation, but not gender identity.

The company does have marketing, advertising, and sponsorship programs geared to the gay community and has an officially recognized LGBT employee group.

HRC deducted 15 points from Walmart’s score in its evaluation of whether the company is a “good corporate citizen,” a subjective measure based on issues not otherwise scored by the Index.

Stonewall noted that Mike Duke, the company’s CEO, signed a petition to outlaw adoption by gay and lesbian parents in his home state of Arkansas, where that issue has been particularly contentious. The club also pointed out that more than 100 Walmart stores have carried a children’s book suggesting that the “sin” of homosexuality can be overcome through counseling.

“Walmart’s values are not our values and they are certainly not New York’s,” Stonewall said.

Steven Restivo, a Walmart spokesman, challenged the club’s assessment in comments to the Daily News, noting the LGBT employee group the company recognizes.

On February 3, the City Council held a hearing on the company’s efforts to penetrate the New York market with a store in East New York, Brooklyn. Councilmembers, including Speaker Christine Quinn, were harsh in their criticism of the company’s treatment of its employees and the potential impact a Walmart store could have on a neighborhood’s smaller businesses. A report issued last month by City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio found that for every job a new Walmart store creates, 1.4 jobs are lost elsewhere in the surrounding neighborhood.

The hearing, which lasted for four hours, drew a huge audience, also outspoken in their opposition to the chain moving into the city.

Walmart itself declined to appear at the hearing, and is instead waging a massive public relations effort to build public support to counter the opposition of elected officials and union leaders. That effort has enlisted Bradley Tusk, a former aide to impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich whom Mayor Michael Bloomberg recruited to run his 2009 reelection campaign.

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http://www.observer.com/2011/politics/vito-lopez-surfaces-stonewall-preaches-pragmatism-rent-regulations

“Walmart represents a culture of intolerance and insensitivity towards LGBT employees and issues that is unwelcome in New York.  Just last year more than 100 Walmart stores were found to be promoting a children’s book that suggested that gay people can overcome “sin” and convert to heterosexuality with the help of counseling. Walmart CEO Mike Duke signed a petition in his home state of Arkansas that was aimed at preventing adoption by gay and lesbian parents. The 2011 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates corporations on LGBT issues, gave Walmart 40%. That failing grade is in marked contrast to other retailers like Macy’s and Costco which both received 100%,” the club says in a statement obtained by the Daily Politics.

“Walmart’s values are not our values and they are certainly not New York’s. Stonewall Democratic Club is committed to building a city that is free from intolerance towards all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people – a city that remains Walmart free.”

Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo says that’s not the case: In fact, he says, the big-box chain — which a Doug Schoen poll shows New Yorkers would welcome to the city — is supportive of its LGBT employees.

“Diversity and inclusion are enduring values that are fundamental to our culture, which includes a focus on having respect for our colleagues and customers.  As part of our internal commitment to inclusion, we have Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Associate Resource Groups aimed at building a sense of community among associates sharing similar backgrounds and interests. New Yorkers recognize this broader commitment and that’s just one of the reasons more than 70% support Walmart coming to New York City.”

“Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, the oldest and largest citywide Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) Democratic organization is proud to endorse Wal-Mart Free NYC.

Wal-Mart represents a culture of intolerance and insensitivity towards LGBT employees and issues that is unwelcome in New York. Just last year more than 100 Wal-Mart stores were found to be promoting a children’s book that suggested that gay people can overcome “sin” and convert to heterosexuality with the help of counseling. Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke signed a petition in his home state of Arkansas that was aimed at preventing adoption by Gay and Lesbian parents.

In 2010 the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates corporations on LGBT issues, gave Wal-Mart 40%. That failing grade is in marked contrast to other retailers like Macy*s, Costco both which received 100% in 2010.

Wal-Mart’s values are not our values, and they are certainly not New York’s. Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City is committed to building a city that is free from intolerance towards all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) people – a New York City that remains Wal-Mart free.”

This will be a big year for New York City’s tenants, especially for those living in rent-stabilized apartments. On June 15, 2011, the New York State laws that govern rent regulations will expire unless the legislature and Governor Cuomo successfully broker a deal to renew them. Along with limits on some rents, these regulations give tenants the right to renew their leases and protect them against eviction without legal cause, and ensure services.

We encourage you to attend our general membership meeting where we will have the opportunity to hear from members of our municipal and state legislatures in a discussion focused on these rent laws and other housing issues which affect the LGBT community.

Our featured guest speakers will include:

New York State Assembly Member Vito J. Lopez, Chair of the Housing Committee, and Chair of the Kings County Democratic Committee.

New York State Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, Chair of the Mitchell-Lama Committee, and Member of the Housing Committee.

New York City Council Member Rosie Mendez, Chair of the Council’s Committee on Public Housing and Member of the Council’s Committee on Housing & Buildings.

Other guest speakers will be announced. The club will also conduct our annual election of our Board of Directors. We will also vote on the ratification of the club’s constitution and by-laws.

Our General Membership meetings are conducted on the fourth Wednesday of each month at The Center, 208 West 13^th Street (between Seventh Avenue and Greenwich Avenue) in New York City.

Charlie King was our very special guest for our June 30^th meeting. Charlie was recently selected by our party’s leadership to be the Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Committee. He spoke of the goals to elect our gubernatorial candidate, current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and the winner of the Primary Election for Attorney General, as well as the rest of the Democratic ticket, including the election of Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the re-election of Senator Chuck Schumer and our Democratic members of Congress. We discussed the goal to grow our majorities in the New York State Senate and Assembly. Charlie also talked about Andrew Cuomo’s five point “The New NY Agenda”, which is his plan to clean up Albany, create jobs, get our financial house in order, etc.  One of the five points is “NY Leads”.  By leading Cuomo means to pass same sex marriage, protect a woman’s right to choose, enact anti-discriminations laws, etc.

You can see the full plan at www.AndrewCuomo.com.  We encourage you to read the plan and sign up to support it.  King assured us that Cuomo plans to make the passage of same sex marriage a major priority in the Cuomo administration.

Special Guest Speaker is Ross D. Levi, Executive Director of the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA).

Also, on July 28th, 2010, as part of our General Membership Meeting, we will have a special forum with Ross D. Levi, the new Executive Director of ESPA, the leading civil rights organization committed to achieving equality and justice for LGBT New Yorkers and our families. Ross oversees ESPA’s legislative and political activities, as well as the education and community organizing work of the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation. Much like Stonewall Democrats, ESPA supports effective and unabashed legislative allies and opposes not only those Senators who are ideologically opposed to us, but those who are unable or unwilling to stand and deliver.

This exclusive SDNYC forum is being set up for the entire community to hear about ESPA’s latest accomplishments, plans for the remainder of this legislative session, and what the future holds for LGBT rights, across the board, here in NYS. After the Forum, Ross will be taking questions and comments from our audience. We will also be joined by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn , who will be presenting a proclamation in honor of Stonewall Democratic Club’s founding member Lew Todd in celebration of his 80th birthday. Light refreshments will be served.

Other Upcoming Events for July 2010:

Come Out to Meet and Support the Bronx Community Pride Center: I had the pleasure of visiting with Bronx Community Pride Center (BCPC)’s Executive Director Dirk McCall and his dynamic staff at their office and facilities. As the only LGBT organization in the Bronx, BCPC offers a safe haven for youth who face ostracism, a forum for community organizing, a social network for LGBT individuals of all ages and critical, direct services such as case management, social service referrals, health care information and educational programming.

There are two upcoming events which we hope that you will consider attending:

Sunday July 18, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Lewis H.Goldstein will host a luncheon at his home.
2015 St. Paul Avenue – Apt. 5I
Bronx, New York
RSVP: lhg82ad@aol.com

Tuesday July 20, 6:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Pastor Paul Milholland and Kell Isaac will host a house party at their home.
31-18 37th Street
Astoria, New York
RSVP: McDirk@gmail.com

National Stonewall Democrats Convention

Friday July 30 through Sunday August 1, 2010.  Hundreds of Stonewall Democrats from around the country will descend on Washington, DC this summer for The National Stonewall Democrats Convention. This is a biannual gathering of LGBT Democrats, pro-equality activists, party officials and elected officials who come together to meet, talk and learn from one another.  Will you be there?

Register here: http://www.stonewalldemocrats.org/convention2010

Joseph G. Hagelmann, III
President

“When did you ever see a fag fight back?… Now, times were a-changin’. Tuesday night was the last night for bullshit…. Predominantly, the theme (w)as, “this shit has got to stop!”

—anonymous Stonewall riots participant

Something unremarkable happened on June 27, 1969 in New York’s Greenwich Village, an event which had occurred a thousand times before across the U.S. over the decades. The police raided a gay bar.

But not just any gay bar. This bar was and still is after 41 years, the Stonewall Inn, located at 51 and 53 Christopher Street, in New York City. At that time, the Stonewall Inn, along with several other establishments in the city, was owned by the Mafia, specifically the Genovese family. In 1966, three members of the Mafia invested $3,500 to turn the Stonewall Inn into a gay bar, after it had been a restaurant and a nightclub for heterosexuals. Once a week a police officer would collect envelopes of cash as a payoff because the Stonewall Inn had no liquor license. It also had no running water behind the bar—used glasses were run through tubs of water and immediately reused. There were no fire exits, and the toilets overran consistently. Though the bar was not used for prostitution, drug sales and other “cash transactions” took place. It was the only bar for gay men in New York City where dancing was allowed.

Visitors to the Stonewall in 1969 were greeted by a bouncer who inspected them through a peephole in the door. The legal drinking age was 18, and to avoid unwittingly letting in undercover police (who were called “Lily Law”, “Alice Blue Gown”, or “Betty Badge”) visitors would have to be known by the doorman, or look gay. The entrance fee on weekends was $3, for which the customer received two tickets that could be exchanged for two drinks. Patrons were required to sign their names in a book to prove that the bar was a private “bottle club”, but rarely signed their real names.

There were two dance floors in the Stonewall; the interior was painted black, making it very dark inside, with pulsing gel lights or black lights. If police were spotted, regular white lights were turned on, signaling that everyone should stop dancing or touching. In the rear of the bar was a smaller room frequented by “queens”; it was one of two bars where effeminate men who wore makeup and teased their hair (though dressed in men’s clothing) could go. Only a few transvestites, or men in full drag, were allowed in by the bouncers.

The customers were “98 percent male” but a few lesbians sometimes came to the bar. Younger homeless adolescent males, who slept in nearby Christopher Park, would often try to get in so customers would buy them drinks. The age range of the clientèle was between the upper teens and early thirties, and the racial mix was evenly distributed among white, black, and Hispanic. Because of its even mix of people, its location, and the attraction of dancing, the Stonewall Inn was known by many as “the gay bar in the city”.

Police raids on gay bars were frequent—occurring on average once a month for each bar. Many bars kept extra liquor in a secret panel behind the bar, or in a car down the block, to facilitate resuming business as quickly as possible if alcohol was seized. Bar management usually knew about raids beforehand due to police tip-offs, and raids occurred early enough in the evening that business could commence after the police had finished. During a typical raid, the lights were turned on, and customers were lined up and their identification cards checked. Those without identification or dressed in full drag were arrested; others were allowed to leave. Some of the men, including those in drag, used their draft cards as identification. Women were required to wear three pieces of feminine clothing, and would be arrested if found not wearing them. Employees and management of the bars were also typically arrested. The period immediately before June 28, 1969 was marked by frequent raids of local bars—including a raid at the Stonewall Inn on the Tuesday before the riots—and the closing of the Checkerboard, the Tele-Star, and two other clubs in Greenwich Village.

Police raid

At 1:20 in the morning on Saturday, June 28, 1969, four plainclothes policemen in dark suits, two patrol officers in uniform, and Detective Charles Smythe and Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine arrived at the Stonewall Inn’s double doors and announced “Police! We’re taking the place!” At first, everything unfolded according to a time-honored ritual. The bar staff stopped serving the watered-down, overpriced drinks, while their Mafia bosses swiftly removed the cigar boxes which functioned as tills. The officers demanded identification papers from the customers and then escorted them outside, throwing some into a waiting paddy-wagon and pushing others off the sidewalk. The music was turned off and the main lights were turned on. Approximately 200 people were in the bar that night. Patrons who had never experienced a police raid were confused, but a few who realized what was happening began to run for doors and windows in the bathrooms. Police barred the doors, and confusion spread.

The raid did not go as planned. Standard procedure was to line up the patrons, check their identification, and have female police officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to verify their sex, upon which any men dressed as women would be arrested. Those dressed as women that night refused to go with the officers. Men in line began to refuse to produce their identification. The police decided to take everyone present to the police station, and separated the transvestites in a room in the back of the bar. Both patrons and police recalled that a sense of discomfort spread very quickly, spurred by police who began to “bully” some of the lesbians by “feeling some of them up inappropriately” while frisking them.

Those who were not arrested were released from the front door, but they did not leave quickly as usual. Instead, they stopped outside and a crowd began to grow and watch. Within minutes, between 100 and 150 people had congregated outside, some after they were released from inside the Stonewall, and some after noticing the police cars and the crowd. Although the police forcefully pushed or kicked some patrons out of the bar, some customers released by the police performed for the crowd by posing and saluting the police in an exaggerated fashion. The crowd’s applause encouraged them further.

When the first patrol wagon arrived, Inspector Pine recalled that the crowd—most of whom were homosexual—had grown to at least ten times the number of people who were arrested, and they all became very quiet. Confusion over radio communication delayed the arrival of a second wagon. The police began escorting Mafia members into the first wagon, to the cheers of the bystanders. Next, regular employees were loaded into the wagon. A bystander shouted, “Gay power!”, someone began singing “We Shall Overcome“, and the crowd reacted with amusement and general good humor mixed with growing and intensive hostility.

The police tried continuously to break up the jeering mob only to have it re-form behind them, yelling taunts, tossing bottles and bricks, setting fires in trash cans. At one point, police found themselves face-to-face with their worst nightmare: a chorus line of mocking queens, their arms clasped around each other, kicking their heels in the air Rockettes-style and singing at the tops of their sardonic voices:

‘We are the Stonewall girls

We wear our hair in curls

We wear no underwear

We show our pubic hair…

We wear our dungarees

Above our nelly knees!’

Then an officer shoved a transvestite, who responded by hitting him on the head with her purse as the crowd began to boo. Pennies, then beer bottles, were thrown at the wagon as a rumor spread through the crowd that patrons still inside the bar were being beaten.

A scuffle broke out when a woman in handcuffs was escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon several times. She escaped repeatedly and fought with four of the police, swearing and shouting, for about ten minutes. Described as “a typical New York butch” and “a dyke—stone butch”, she had been hit on the head by an officer with a billy club for, as one witness claimed, complaining that her handcuffs were too tight. Bystanders recalled that the woman, whose identity remains unknown, sparked the crowd to fight when she looked at bystanders and shouted, “Why don’t you guys do something?” After an officer picked her up and heaved her into the back of the wagon, the crowd became a mob and went “berserk”. It was at that moment that the scene became explosive.

“It was just kind of like everything over the years had come to a head on that one particular night in the one particular place…”

- witness, Michael Fader

The police tried to restrain some of the crowd, and knocked a few people down, which incited bystanders even more. Some of those handcuffed in the wagon escaped when police left them unattended (deliberately, according to some witnesses). As the crowd tried to overturn the police wagon, two police cars and the wagon—with a few slashed tires—left immediately, with Inspector Pine urging them to return as soon as possible.

The commotion attracted more people who learned what was happening. Someone in the crowd declared that the bar had been raided because “they didn’t pay off the cops”, to which someone else yelled “Let’s pay them off!” Coins sailed through the air towards the police as the crowd shouted “Pigs!” and “Faggot cops!” Beer cans were thrown and the police lashed out, dispersing some of the crowd, who found a construction site nearby with stacks of bricks. Outnumbered by between 500 and 600 people, Ten police officers grabbed several people, —including two policewomen and Howard Smith (a writer for The Village Voice), along with several handcuffed detainees inside the Stonewall Inn for their own safety.

Multiple accounts of the riot assert that there was no pre-existing organization or apparent cause for the demonstration; what ensued was spontaneous. One witness, Michael Fader explained…

“We all had a collective feeling like we’d had enough of this kind of shit. It wasn’t anything tangible anybody said to anyone else, it was just kind of like everything over the years had come to a head on that one particular night in the one particular place, and it was not an organized demonstration…. Everyone in the crowd felt that we were never going to go back. It was like the last straw. It was time to reclaim something that had always been taken from us…. All kinds of people, all different reasons, but mostly it was total outrage, anger, sorrow, everything combined, and everything just kind of ran its course. It was the police who were doing most of the destruction. We were really trying to get back in and break free. And we felt that we had freedom at last, or freedom to at least show that we demanded freedom. We weren’t going to be walking meekly in the night and letting them shove us around—it’s like standing your ground for the first time and in a really strong way, and that’s what caught the police by surprise. There was something in the air, freedom a long time overdue, and we’re going to fight for it. It took different forms, but the bottom line was, we weren’t going to go away. And we didn’t. “

Garbage cans, garbage, bottles, rocks, and bricks were hurled at the building, breaking the windows. Witnesses attest that “flame queens”, hustlers, and gay “street kids”—the most outcast people in the gay community—were responsible for the first volley of projectiles, as well as the uprooting of a parking meter used as a battering ram on the doors of the Stonewall Inn.

Sylvia Rivera, who was in full drag and had been in the Stonewall during the raid, remembered: “You’ve been treating us like shit all these years? Uh-uh. Now it’s our turn!… It was one of the greatest moments in my life.”

The mob lit garbage on fire and stuffed it through the broken windows as the police grabbed a fire hose. Because it had no water pressure, the hose was ineffective in dispersing the crowd, and seemed only to encourage them. When demonstrators broke through the windows—which had been covered by plywood by the bar owners to deter the police from raiding the bar—the police inside unholstered their pistols. The doors flew open and officers pointed their weapons at the angry crowd, threatening to shoot. The Village Voice writer Howard Smith, in the bar with the police, took a wrench from the bar and stuffed it in his pants, unsure if he might have to use it against the mob or the police. He watched someone squirt lighter fluid into the bar as it was lit and the police took aim, sirens were heard and fire trucks arrived. The onslaught had lasted 45 minutes.

By 4:00 in the morning the streets had nearly been cleared. Many people sat on stoops or gathered nearby in Christopher Park throughout the morning, dazed in disbelief at what had transpired. Many witnesses remembered the surreal and eerie quiet that descended upon Christopher Street, though there continued to be “electricity in the air”. One commented: “There was a certain beauty in the aftermath of the riot…. It was obvious, at least to me, that a lot of people really were gay and, you know, this was our street.”

Thirteen people had been arrested. Some in the crowd were hospitalized, and four police officers were injured. Almost everything in the Stonewall Inn was broken. Pay telephones, toilets, mirrors, jukeboxes, and cigarette machines were all smashed, possibly in the riot and possibly by the police.

In The Immediate Aftermath

In the wake of the riots, intense discussions took place in the city’s gay community. During the first week of July, a small group of lesbians and gay men started talking about establishing a new organization called the Gay Liberation Front. The name was consciously chosen for its association with the anti-imperialist struggles in Vietnam and Algeria. Sections of the GLF would go on to organize solidarity for arrested Black Panthers, collect money for striking workers, and link the battle for gay rights to the banner of socialism.

During the next year or so, lesbians and gay men built a Gay Liberation Front (GLF) or comparable body in Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Australia, and New Zealand.

The word “Stonewall” has entered the vocabulary of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered (LGBT) people everywhere as a potent emblem of the gay community making a stand against oppression and demanding full equality in every area of life.

The GLF is no more, but the idea of Gay Power is as strong as ever. Meanwhile, in many countries and cities the concept of “gay pride” literally marches on each year in the form of an annual Gay Pride march.

The present generation of young LGBT people and many of today’s gay rights activists were born or grew up after 1969. And over the intervening decades, politics in the U.S. have passed through a very different period. While there have been huge advances in the struggle for LGBT rights, there is still a long way to go to achieve full liberation as the growing attacks by the religious right makes very clear.

In the next installment: The Aftermath Continues.

1. Facts and information for this piece were derived from free sources including Wikipedia and “The Stonewall Riots – 1969 — A Turning Point in the Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Liberation” by Lionel Wrigh, July 1, 1999

Several candidates in other Democratic primaries for NYS Senate and Assembly also made their screening appearances, including activist Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, who is challenging incumbent Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.

Find out more:
The Observer

NYPost

Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City was founded in February 1986 as the first and only citywide Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Democratic organization in

New York City. The first event was a small cocktail party held at The Ballroom in Chelsea. Little did we know that this new organization would grow to be the largest LGBT Democratic political club in the City and State of New York.

The organization is named in honor of the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. In 1969, New York’s gay community decided to fight back against the ongoing routine of police harassment and arrest of gay men, lesbians, and transgender people in Greenwich Village. On the night of June 27-28, 1969 a conflict erupted when the patrons of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, decided to stand up and fight to defend their rights to congregate at a gay bar. The battle with police went on for nearly a week and it eventually led to a new policy by New York City and the police department to stop harassing and arresting LGT people. The LGBT community burst out of the closet and this pivotal moment became known as “the hairpin heard around the world”. There was no looking back.

The Stonewall Democratic Club was founded to continue to fight for those rights. The founders wanted to create a strong voice within the Democratic Party that would represent the interests and concerns of the LGBT community within the party. The goals were to influence elections, legislation, and policy on the city, state, and national levels of government. The most important issues of concern in 1986 were our civil rights and our health.

In New York City the year 1986 was mementos because it was the year the New York City Council finally passed the “Gay Rights Bill”. The bill was introduced every year for 15 years until it finally passed in 1986. That year, Peter Vallone Sr. was elected Majority Leader, later to be renamed Speaker, of the Council. Although he personally did not support the bill, he appointed enough Council Members to the General Welfare Committee who did support the bill so that it could be brought to the floor for a full vote of the Council. He agreed to allow members to vote their conscience. On March 20, 1986 the full Council passed the bill by a margin of 21-1.

This new law prohibited discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation based on a person’s sexual orientation. Mayor Ed Koch, a supporter of the bill, signed it into law a few days later.

The year 1986 was also the height of the AIDS epidemic. New York City became and continues to be the epicenter of the epidemic in the United States. In 1986, gay men in New York City were being decimated by this new disease. Many men became ill and very quickly, often within weeks or months, died terrible, painful deaths. AIDS forced our community to start to confront many difficult issues, life and death issues, including: health care, health insurance, domestic partner’s rights, hospital visitation, discrimination against people diagnosed or perceived to be infected with the HIV/AIDS, grief, and funerals, many funerals. AIDS forced even the most non-political people in our community to become political activists. Government and politicians held our survival in their hands and our community began to understand that voting, elections, government funding, and laws did matter.

Also in 1986, a major political loss for our community was the Bowers v. Hardwick decision by the United States Supreme Court. This decision upheld the constitutionality of the Georgia sodomy laws which criminalized oral and anal sex in private, by consenting adults of the same sex. This was a terrible defeat for the LGBT community. It adversely influenced LGBT rights for the next 17 years. In 2003, the Supreme Court reversed Bowers v. Hardwick in the Lawrence v. Texas decision, when it struck down the Texas sodomy laws as unconstitutional.

Joe grew up the suburbs, but is a native New Yorker, and a lifelong Democrat. Once he was old enough to vote, he served as a State Committee Member, and carried petitions to gather signatures for Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and Bill Clinton.

Joe became an active member of SDCNYC in 2002, and was then elected to the Executive Board the following year.

In 2005 at the suggestion of the Executive Board, then New York City Councilmember Margarita Lopez endorsed Joe as a candidate to fill vacancies on Manhattan Community Board Five. Borough President C. Virginia Fields appointed him to fill one of those vacancies, and he was subsequently endorsed by Councilmember Rosie Mendez, and appointed by Manhattan’s current Borough President Scott Stringer. Joe serves on Manhattan Community Board Five’s Landmarks and Parks Committees, and has served as the Parks Committee Chairman since 2009.

SDCNYC recently had the opportunity to suggest individuals among its membership to take part in New York City Council’s Speaker Christine Quinn’s effort to revive an LGBT Advisory Committee to the NYPD. Joe is among those proposed by Speaker Quinn and has been invited by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to participate in this dialogue.

After serving as the club’s Treasurer for half a decade, on February 22, 2010 the Executive Board of Stonewall Democratic Club of New York unanimously elected Joseph G. Hagelmann, III our President. Two days later, as moderator and host of the club’s general meeting, he took on the role of “tamer” as Harold Ford “entered the lion’s den and got mauled.” For Joe, it is a great honor, and he is enjoying the experience and the opportunity to lead our legendary organization as we carry on the efforts to advocate for New York’s LGBT community.

Joe and his partner, Robert Harvey live in Midtown Manhattan, with their eleven-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, Sammy.

Fredy H. Kaplan, Esq.- Vice President

Is the LGBT Liaison and Outreach Director for the New York State Democratic Committee. He is also an accomplished litigation attorney who has handled many high profile media cases in New York City, as well as a political strategist and lobbyist formerly with the government relations firm Patricia Lynch Associates, Inc., Fredy went from being an Executive Board member with SDNYC in 2008 to becoming one of the club’s Vice President, both in 2010 and 2011.

Highly regarded for his committed leadership and activism in the LGBT community in New York City, Fredy has successfully put together some of the club’s most memorable forums including the City’s first Manhattan District Attorney Candidates Debate in 2009; the Harold Ford Jr., forum, and a NYS Attorney General Candidates forum, and LGBT GOTV rally featuring NYS Lieutenant Governor, Robert Duffy, all in 2010.

Fredy’s background experience includes an appointment in 2004 by then New York City Council’s Speaker, Gifford A. Miller to serve as Legislative and Policy Counsel to the Council’s Committees on Economic Development, Parks and Recreation and Technology in Government. He was also selected that same year by the New York County Independent Judicial Screening Committee as a judicial candidate for the Civil Court of the City of New York. Beyond his experience with the City Council and as a principal in a law firm, Fredy has worked as an attorney with the NYS Office of the Attorney General and the Legal Aid Society of Kings County.

As a result of his legal expertise and background, Fredy was chosen by the American Bar Association to serve as one of ten attorneys nationwide to review and give commentary on the proposed Criminal Procedure Law for the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2001. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lesbian and Gay Law Association of Greater New York (“LeGal”) from 2002 to 2006.

A native New Yorker, Fredy lives in the East Village with his partner of five years, Anthony Cipriano, and their dogs, Buddy and Zack, and bird, Sam Bernstein.

Melissa Sklarz – Vice President

A long time activist and icon in the LGBT community, Melissa became the first transgender person elected to office in New York when she was elected Judicial Delegate from the 66th Assembly District in 1999. She likewise, became the first transgender person from New York to be part of the state delegation at the Democratic National Convention, by being appointed to the Credentials Committee in 2004 and again on the Rules Committee in 2008.

Melissa helped bring civil rights to transgender people in New York City when INT 24 became law in 2002 and has been a lobbying leader for GENDA (Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act)

In 2010, Melissa was at the side of Governor Paterson when he announced an executive order protecting the rights of transgender people employed by New York State.

Melissa also had a featured role in the film Transamerica.

Kevin Burke – Vice President

A longtime resident of New York City’s Greenwich Village, Kevin has been an active Executive Board member since 2004 where he has been responsible for SDCNYC’s annual Street Fair, one of the Club’s important fundraising events.

In addition to his duties as an Administrative Staff Analyst with the City of New York, Kevin helps his partner, Matthew Chirichella, run a successful business from their home.

Prior to employment with the city, Kevin was a Disco DJ for 20 years spinning records at Tea Dance at the Blue Whale / Botel on Fire Island Pines from 1977 to 1995, as well as many of the popular Clubs and Bars around town such as 12 West, Flamingo, Studio 54 and the Red Parrot.

Yetta Kurland – Vice President

Yetta G. Kurland has been an advocate of civil rights in the New York City area for over a decade and she has gained recognition and attention for the legal work she does as well as her commitment to social justice. She is the founding partner of Kurland & Associates, P.C., a full service boutique law firm where her victories include a decision to allow LGBT partners to assume the same last name as domestic partners, the right of a lesbian non-biological parent to be awarded custody of her child, and successfully defending a New York City Police officer from discrimination she faced within the New York City Police Department. The firm has also recently won a settlement against a major airlines company for HIV discrimination and a large foodservice corporation for harassment based on gender and sexual orientation.

Current lawsuits she is handling include a suit against the City for gender and race discrimination within the Fire Department, a suit involving an individual who was wrongfully arrested in the Republic National Convention of 2004, as well as her work with Top Chef Contestant Ms. Josie Smith Malave who was the recipient of a hate crime in a gang assault that took place in 2007.

Yetta is currently serving her second term as Vice President SDNYC, and formed and chairs SDNYC’s Annual Women’s Awards. She is also on the board of Marriage Equality New York, and is on the Executive Committee of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Additionally, Yetta is the creator of Hello World Language Center, an alternative language and culture resource center, and is an adjunct professor at New York University where she teaches in the Steinhardt School of Education.

A resident of the New York City Council’s Third District for almost 15 years, Yetta ran what many consider to be a historic campaign and primary race in 2009 for the district Council seat..

Yetta lives in Chelsea with her partner Elizabeth and their two Italian Greyhounds, Sal and Luca.

Michael Mallon – Corresponding Secretary

Michael is also Co-Chair of the SDCNYC membership committee. A native New Yorker who’s life was transformed when he came out to his family and moved from Brooklyn to Astoria in 2005, Michael is a symbol of community activism and organizing.

Having been involved with the efforts to help LGBT and LGBT-supportive candidates become elected to public office, in January 2010, Michael joined the staff of New York City Council Member Daniel Dromm, who, together with Hon. Jimmy Van Bramer, is the first openly-gay NYC Council Member in the borough of Queens.

Also, having a strong belief the church should be a place of support and comfort to the LGBT community, Michael helped reorganize and currently serves on the steering committee of Integrity NYC (iNYC), an advocacy and fellowship group that strives and promotes for the visibility, equality, and well-being of LGBT persons and their families both within the Episcopal Church and the wider community. He also currently serves on the board of Out Astoria, a group that organizes the LGBT community in Astoria, LIC, and Sunnyside and provides a forum for dialogue.

Michael was also recently honored by the Queens chapter of PFLAG for his commitment and activism.

Michael resides in the Dutch Kills section of Astoria with the amazing Chap James Day, his beloved partner of five years.

Charles Bayor –Recording Secretary

Charles is a native New Yorker, growing up in the Grand Concourse section of the Bronx. He graduated from Wm. Howard Taft H.S; Hunter College (Lehman College); and American University (Washington D.C.) with a degree in Political Science.

After college, Charles returned to N.Y. where he began his Teaching Career, first in Intermediate school then in High School, as a teacher of social studies.

Upon retiring as a teacher, he began mentoring new chapter leaders and rebuilding failing chapters at various schools in NYC. Charles presently serves on the Economic and Social Committee of the UFT, and has been appointed by the President of the UFT (Randi Weingarten) to a special task force on Civil Rights.

In addition to his longtime political and social activist as Chapter Leader, Delegate and the political action liaison for the UFT in Manhattan, Charles served as Vice President of Gouverneur Hospital, is currently an active member of Community Board 3, is Chair of the local School Board, and is a Democratic District leader.

He joined the Stonewall Board of Directors in 2008, and became Recording Secretary in 2010

Charles has been honored for his commitment by Gouverneur Hospital, and the Manhattan Democratic Club.

Thomas Shevlin – Treasurer

Tom is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certified in Financial Risk Management (FRM) and has a Master’s Degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University.  He worked as an Economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2 years, then served in the duel role of Economist and Diplomat for the U.S. Treasury Department for 7 years. Tom is now Head of Financial Markets Research for McKinsey and Company’s internal wealth management group; MIO Partners, where he has worked for 6 years.

Tom has been a member of SDNYC’s Executive Board since January 2007. He volunteered in the finance and reporting department for John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign and has volunteered for a number of other Democratic campaigns and LGBT causes.

He is a native of upstate New York and currently lives in Chelsea with his partner of 18 months, Glen Baker.

Executive Board of Directors

Marty Algaze

Richard Allman

Steve Ashkinazy

Matthew W. Carlin

Michael F. Colosi

Jen Handler

Aubrey Lees

Marc Levine

Brice Peyre

John Phillips

Thomas Shevlin

Tom Smith

At Large Board Members

Lewis Goldstein

Lenny Rosenblatt

Tenured Board Members

Paul J. Del Duca

Saul Fishman

Dirk McCall

Connie Ress

Lew Todd

Frank Wilkinson

Bob Zuckerman

Board of Governors

Mark P. Thompson  – Co-Chair

Barbara Russo  – Vice-Chair

]]> http://sdnyc.org/2010/04/officers-and-board-of-directors/feed/ 0 http://sdnyc.org/2010/04/quinn-stands-in-defends-gillibrand/ http://sdnyc.org/2010/04/quinn-stands-in-defends-gillibrand/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:31:00 +0000 Fredy http://sdnyc.org/?p=66 By Reid Pillifant

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand couldn’t make it to the Stonewall Democratic Club’s candidate forum last night, so she called on Council Speaker Christine Quinn to sub for her. Which meant fielding the inevitable, awkward questions about whether the senator had shifted her position on gay issues.

Ms. Quinn, who endorsed Ms. Gillibrand in January, defended the Gillibrand narrative that the senator hasn’t changed her positions since ascending to statewide office.

“I think truly she held these positions through her entire career and her entire working life,” Ms. Quinn said last night. “There was misinformation out there at points about her positions that indicated she had different positions than what she actually had. And I think it’s important for all of us to know that. I took the time and learned that when she was first appointed to the Senate.”

Ms. Gillibrand came to her Senate seat with a less-than-stellar rating from the Human Rights Campaign, but after phone calls to Ms. Quinn and others on the eve of her appointment–pledging her commitment to the cause and soliticiting their support–has been an award-winning champion of gay issues.

“There was inaccurate information out there,” Ms. Quinn said. “Some would say her positions have switched. I don’t think that’s true at all.”

How did Ms. Quinn come to stand in for the senator? “They just asked and I was happy to do it,” she told me afterward.

Joseph G. Hagelmann, III, 
President
of Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City stated, “New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is a member of Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, she is the highest ranking LGBT municipal elected official, and the highest ranking woman holding municipal office. In the absence of Senator Gillibrand, there is nobody more appropriate to ask for our club’s endorsement. We are thankful and very happy that Speaker Quinn participated in the forum, and our club is proud to endorse the election of Senator Gillibrand.

Be sure to Register!

Along with the most influential activists and community members on hand, the LGBT Community, embraced their own power, made themselves heard, and forced a well-funded politician whose potential candidacy was offensive to the community to abandon his attempt to represent us.

“I don’t think he was aware of what the gay community is like in New York,” said Marty Algaze, a veteran of both LGBT and Democratic politics, and former Stonewall president. “He’s walking into a lion’s den.”

Read more from the NY Daily News

To be sure, there were a number of factors which affected Ford’s decision not to run, but none had a more damaging effect on Ford’s aspirations at a more critical moment than the image of him speaking before an angry crowd of New Yorkers holding up signs with the word “LIAR” written in 10-inch high letters and chanting “Snake oil Harry, go away!”

Ford appeared at the club to tell its members and the invited public that he had evolved from his previous opposition to gay marriage and that he now supported the cause, just like his would-be opponent, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. (Ford had voted twice for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman). The Stonewall event and the images that came out of it sent the clear message that the LGBT community would campaign relentlessly against him not on a “social issue” or a gay issue of limited appeal to a minority community, but on the issue that straight politicians have used against each other for years: trust.

Gay people protested against the potential candidacy of Harold Ford Jr. not because of his position on marriage, but because he lied to the LGBT Community at whole. He lied when, as a congressman in 2004, his office told his gay constituents, including the president of the Memphis chapter of the Stonewall Democratic Club and the president of the Memphis LGBT Center, that he would not support a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and that he would never write discrimination into the United States Constitution. However he lied, and flipped his script, and went on to vote for the Federal Marriage Amendment twice, once each in 2004 and 2006. Ford Jr. boasted about those votes in television ads when he ran for U.S. Senate from Tennessee in 2006. He also became an outspoken advocate of a successful referendum that amended the Tennessee Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

When Ford came out in support of same-sex marriage in January 2010, and when he stood before gay voters at the SDCNYC meeting on February 24, 2010, he was asking people to believe in the sincerity of his evolution. At the forum meeting the protest the message presented by activists to Ford was clear, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The message to voters couldn’t have been more obvious: Harold Ford cannot be trusted to represent New York.

Fortunately, gay people are beginning to recognize that they are entitled to be angry and that that they are entitled to demand integrity in government in connection with their issues. Any politician who takes our money and our support during his or her campaign and then when in office either fails to act or, as in Ford’s case, joins with the forces of hate by voting against us, must know that the LGBT community has the power and the will to deliver consequences. Whether you are a Democrat in the New York State Senate who took our money and support in the last election and then voted against same-sex marriage last December, a New Jersey Republican who represents the gayest district in your state but voted against marriage in January, or the President of the United States who ran on a promise to support full-equality for same-sex couples but has yet to deliver, this action should put you on notice: don’t take us for granted.

(Portions of this article are taken from the full article written by SDCNYC member, and President of The Power, for the Huffington Post on March 5,2010.

See also the following videos and links:

• http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/25/2010-02-25_ford_hits_a_stonewall_in_w_village_on_gay_nups.html
• http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/02/harold_ford.php
• http://www.ny1.com/5-manhattan-news-content/top_stories/114258/crowd-heckles-ford-jr–over-gay-marriage-stance
• http://dnainfo.com/20100225/manhattan/harold-ford-jr-gets-hostile-reception-from-stonewall-democrats
• http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/02/ford-in-for-rude-awakening-at.html
  http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2010/02/harold-ford-jr-to-meet-with-stonewall-democrats-in-nyc.html
• http://www.365gay.com/news/ford-jr-gets-tough-reception-from-stonewall-dems/
• http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2010/02/crash-protest-anti-gay-harold-fords.html
• http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/knickerbocker/harold_ford_jr_to_face_protest_at_AEAC42VMqUsNGcsxLINVxM
• http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/02/16/Ford_to_Address_NYC_Gay_Group/
• http://www.examiner.com/x-1527-NY-Government-Examiner~y2010m2d17-Protest-planned-as-Harold-Ford-Jr-prepares-to-address-gay-Dems
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/24/840408/-Harold-Ford-Meets-the-NY-Stonewall-Dems
• http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/crowd-heckles-harold-ford-jr-gay-marriage-s
• http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=103034
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-campagna/why-we-had-to-stop-harold_b_487508.html
• http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-q/2010/02/harold-ford-jr-gets-stonewalled.html
• http://nyunews.com/news/2010/02/24/25ford/
• http://politics.nashvillepost.com/2010/03/05/gays-claim-credit-for-ford-jr-standing-down-in-ny/
• http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2010/02/video-harold-ford-center—-did-he-thrill-or-chill-a-brand.html
• http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/feb/24/former-memphis-congressman-harold-ford-jr-gets-tou/
• http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33495.html
• http://gothamist.com/2010/02/25/video_west_village_gay_rights_group.php
• http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/knickerbocker/ford_lambasted_by_gay_community_HNaIljWrwku6E1Sb5us5fP
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/harold-ford-i-coulda-been_n_482205.html
• http://www.life.com/image/97032389
• http://topics.npr.org/photo/05Tm3fHcV83hk?q=Nita+Lowey
• http://gaycitynews.com/articles/2010/04/06/gay_city_news/news/albany/doc4b8f405fd368b035626597.txt

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The Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City was founded to represent the political ideas, ideals, concerns, and priorities of the LGBT community of New York City and New York State.
The organization achieves these goals by: supporting well qualified candidates for local, state, and national office, and by supporting and lobbying for our civil rights,legislative agenda, healthcare, information and education, and for funding for our institutions and organizations.

Our General Meetings are the 4th Wednesday of every month at 8PM.
Unless otherwise specified, or for special events, club meetings are usually at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St. between 7th Ave. and Greenwich Ave.New York, NY

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